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Monday, December 22, 2008

Reduction in Services Complaint

Rent stabilized tenants in this building pay for services that have not been provided, including

24-hour security (the doorman is often absent and the doors often open)

a reopened backyard

window blinds repairs and replacement

a safe front stair banister

a consistently working intercom

and more.

Since the law prohibits landlords from cutting the services of rent stabilized tenants (unless the landlord also cuts the rent), and complaints are strongest if

filed within 4 years of entering rent stabilization

with many tenants signing on

the Central Park Gardens Tenants' Association filed a complaint for reduction of building-wide services with the New York State Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR). Submitted on December 22, 2008, it is within the four years since we left Mitchell-Lama and entered rent stabilization on January 7, 2005. (Click here to read the complaint - but it may take a while to open since it is over 50 pages long. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to see it - and can download it for free. As of mid-February, it had been assigned Docket Number WL-430021-B)

And 165 tenants signed onto the complaint! - representing about 3/4 of the rent stabilized tenants in the building - and that was just those who were available to sign within a two-day period. Those signatures make the complaint much stronger.

THANKS to all those who signed on and who supported the effort by documenting problems with your e-mails and notes, and by sitting at tables, collecting signatures.

The complaint may well take a year to resolve. We hope that Stellar will provide the services for which we are paying.

Contact Sue for the Tenant Handbook for lots of useful information.And join our e-mail list by e-mailing sue @ janak [dot] org (your name and e-mail address will not appear to others).Household dues are $10 per year.

And please contribute to our legal fund! You can give the $100/year for each apartment (or more if you can afford it) to your floor captain, or to our treasurer, Joan Browne.